Ozpinora - Lunch Buddies
by Not A Bagel
Summary: Ozpin is a man with many burdens aqquired over a long life; each one wieghs on his mind. But some wounds lie deeper, hidden under the scars of lesser wounds bigger cuts still bleed. Nora Valkyrie is a ball of crazy joy and unbridled beserker fury. She likes pancakes, sugar, all things violent and a certain lifelong totally not together-together student. Lunchtime ensues.
1. Chapter 1

" _There comes a time in a man's life, when he must move on from the past. There comes a time, where his reflection will be that of a ghost, haunting him. There will come a time when past sins and mistakes will be brought to light, only for that very same light to vanquish them in it's brilliance."_

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"At'll be 4.50." The world snapped back into clarity with a suddenness that bordered on unnerving, a steaming mug of fresh coffee having been deposited next to the cold brown dregs he had lost himself in. The waitress was of age with him, a woman who had lived through more wars than she'd care to remember, her face a nest of criss crossing wrinkles and blotchy skin. Her face was stern and cold, dismissing his burdens with a polite disinterest that came with any professional, he was hardly the first sad old man to spend his free time alone at the diner; but he was damn sure the first to spend six hundred lien on coffee in under a week.

He simply handed her the silver card, barely even glancing to the side. She took it and wordlessly swiped it on her miniature scroll, the minor surprise of his veteran card and academy logo wore of many visits ago. He sipped the hot coffee, it's terrible taste grounding him in the diner for a while.

The Curo played host to a menagerie of customers. Toddlers with pigtails clung to their mothers as they waited to be seated, couples snuggled close to each other in young bliss and one of his ex students was busily repairing the jukebox with tools that had once smithed firearms, his frown became less pronounced and his forehead wrinkles receded as he saw Marine singing to herself in the kitchen - her once brown hair was silver now and she looked more at home cooking than she did fighting. She hadn't recognized him, but he never forgot a face; or a huntress who had fallen under his command.

Emerald eyes dimmed, as if he were breaking through the enemy's lines again. He could practically feel the bear faunus wrestling him to the ground, leaving him helpless as poor sweet marine ate a grenade full in the face… He clenched the mug ever tighter, the scalding hot liquid cold compared to the burning shame the memory brought back.

It was hard these days, with his school becoming another example of Atlesian arrogance. Every decision he made had to go through Ironwood and every decision James made these days seemed to bolster his forces' presence tenfold. Every student was accompanied by a knight when travelling off grounds, every atlesian soldier had the right to overrule faculty in matters of security, Ironwood had veto over any decision regarding the Vytal festival. His inability to act reopened old wounds, forced him into his past more and more.

Yet here he was hiding from one of his former classmates; he became strong so he would be able to protect people, save lives, ensure no child would -

"Good afternoon professor." A voice sang to him. He once agains snapped back to the present, his shameful frustration retreating before his customary mask of composed calculation.

He studied the redhead before him, confused as to what she was doing out of class, especially without her Atlesian protector. She had already made herself right at home in the booth; sitting opposite him with absolutely zero self doubt. "Miss Valkyrie, why aren't you in class?"

She beamed at him, "Well, I was going to go to class but then I got hungry and I can't study on an empty stomach because then I get distracted and start craving sugar so then I'd just have to pretend to be sick and I didn't want to lie to Professor Peach because she's so nice to me so instead I went to get lunch here." she looked around for a waitress, as if ditching class with her headmaster was the most natural thing in the world. Her joy was infectious and he found himself relaxing, the bubbly first year had been a cause of many headaches for him over the past two semesters - but he was hardly in the habit of punishing his students for enjoying their first year.

"Where is your knight escort?" He asked, trying his absolute best to ignore Nora as she now leaned her entire upper body out into the packed diner, she was doing what could only be described as 'flailing' to attract the attention of the waitress. A man in a business suit rolled his eyes and pointedly glared at Ozpin, the look was a very clear appeal for him to control his companion. The headmaster was absolutely not going to intervene, but the man's imminent temper tantrum was averted when the waitress from before planted herself next to the table.

"Afternoon doll, you kept your old man waiting here - what can I get yous?" She slurred, leaving Nora looking sufficiently admonished.

"I'll just get anot-"

"Give me a PLG with ice and pancakes that are swimming in maple syrup. Also some powdered sugar please, because my sweet tooth is here to play." The waitress tried to match Nora's smile, only to reveal a clutch of yellowing teeth, she turned to Ozpin looking would be rude for him to refuse now but he hadn't even begun to look at the- "Could you get him a BLT please?"

"No problem, that'll be 6.38." Nora went to produce her purse only for Ozpin to present his ever present card.

"Now where is your knight?" He pressed, suddenly deeply concerned that when he returned to Beacon their would be a full scale search party looking for Nora. After all if a Knight had lost its student it would have immediately let James know.

"Oh you mean D4n?" Nora asked innocently, tapping a spoon against the table seemingly at random. It was strange, but it almost seemed like the beginning to a song.

"D4n?" Ozpin parroted, an idea of the answer already forming in his mind. He chuckled prematurely as he made it halfway through his coffee. Nora looked at him as if this were the most serious subject in the world, such steely innocence belied her youth - bringing the first genuine smile to his lips in a long time.

"I asked him what I should call him, he kept saying," She adopted a robotic voice and even operated her arms like a knight "My designation is D-4-N-8-6-G-6-9-4-A-1" She returned her new voice as smoothly as the rising sun, "And I was all; I'll call you D4n! An Ren was all, he won't answer you - and I did it anyway and that's why he's called D4n." She finished.

"Yes but where is the Knight Nora?" He said, the look on her face reminded him briefly of the first Grimm he ever faced; an Ursa that found it's way into a dust shop through a basement -

"I smashed him to pieces." She answered, rather blaise, she opened her PLG with a satisfying pop and downed half the can.

"You smashed one of the garis- security forces?" He asked incredulous.

"He was a pervert who followed me into the bathroom, he broke in so I broke him." She smiled, her childlike glee lit up the booth as their food arrived. The duo began eating with gusto, the small girl packing away food at a rate which he would not believe had he not witnessed another first year demolish a plate of cookies in under ten seconds six months before, but he found himself eating the sandwich put before him in a way he hadn't since before the Atlesian takeover.

She looked at him, concern suddenly blooming across her features - "Why aren't you at school?" She asked.

"I just needed some time out of the office." He lifted his coffee draining the rapidly cooling concoction in one gulp, "I'm glad you joined me for lunch Miss Valkyrie, but I think we should get going now."

"Yeah, I guess so." They stood in unison, Nora barely above the headmaster's waist but she almost bounced towards the exit, "Just like her." He muttered.

"We should do this again sometime! We can be secret lunch buddies!" She practically shrieked in excitement as she gave the idea life by speaking it aloud. Any other day Ozpin would have shot this idea down in flames, strike it down with a professional disapproval; but there was something about Nora Valkyrie that made him reconsider.

They set a date, a month to the day.


	2. Chapter 2

_"Sometimes life gets scary, but when that happens you just give the world the biggest smile you've got."_

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 ** _AN: Updates on all stories will be if and when. Sorry guys, Real life and Novel come first plus I'm super burned out and stressed with those. Leave a review and let me know how I'm doing!_**

Nora rocketed through the sky atop Magnhild. It was so much fun getting around as a huntress, gone were the days of waiting on buses with Ren out in the rain, gone were the days of sneaking onto trams and dodging conductors gone were -

Her stomach rumbled with the ferocity of an ursa as she landed on the roof a dust shop. She wasn't supposed to meet Ozpin for another hour, but she just had to get out of class today. She'd been trying to be a better student, she really truly had - after all it wouldn't be fair if they didn't qualify for the Vytal festival on account of her skipping classes. That wouldn't be fair to Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha - Especially Pyrrha.

She didn't like seriousness, it stressed her out. Anytime she felt there was pressure on her she'd panic, just double down on the goofiness and try to get everyone to lighten up. But lately Pyrrha had been an immovable object of seriousness, in fact it bordered on obsession. Ren always had some kind of scary intense focus for his training, so much so that she couldn't bear to be around him then. No matter how much it hurt, if she trained with him he'd get serious and she'd get goofy which would distract him and then one time he hurt himself because she distracted him during one his aura thingys and then she felt even worse and couldn't stomach doing the aura fighty stuff so started hitting things with a hammer and…

She mentally smacked herself. This is why she ditched in the first place! There's too much seriousness going on right now, even the Knights are trying to make her get serious. They had actually set two on her now! And the Second didn't even break in one whack from Magnhild; it was like it was trying to stress her out. Magnhild folded away neatly as ever and with crossed arms and a grumble she walked across the sun bleached roof and flopped on the edge as if exhausted, letting her legs dangle. There was a lovely view of the park from here, the cherries were even coming into blossom!

One day the cherries would rain down in the background for her wedding, where she'd be wearing white armour and have her husband give her a helmet instead of a ring! That would cover up her hair though… "Maybe Ren would know what looks good in a wedding, I should ask him." She mumbled out loud as she watched two kids fighting over a ball while their quite frankly inattentive parents read scrolls form so far away the kids probably couldn't even see them.

The redhead couldn't help but clench her fist watching the ungrateful family. She would be a much better Mom than that blonde bimbo, she would make those kids so happy and kind and gentle that they would never use words like the ones they had begun to. And Ren would never be like that drunken fool of a father! I mean he was so handsome already and wise and smart and stuff; he'd be a great Dad. The two of them knew exactly what it meant being a parent, they knew exactly how important parents were. Countless times they'd talked about how they'd be different than whoever left them in that damn orphanage.

She sighed and kicked an air conditioner thing, the machine chugging out black smoke and white dust in equal measure and winced as chunks of concrete flaked off her boot as well. Anger wouldn't change anything, as much as it wasn't in her nature she'd been flying off the handle a lot lately… She had been avoiding Ren also, not wanting to bother him from training or studying or cooking or anything. She just felt like she was a nuisance to him, especially now she wanted to talk to him about… "together together." He probably wouldn't go for it. She knew that, she _always_ knew that. He always talked about going out and being hunters together, killing grimm together or saving the kingdoms together. Even when the other "older" kids at the orphanage called them a couple he hadn't seemed interested in that.

That shouldn't hurt her. He was _**Ren**_ , always the lone wolf badass ninja going to punch grimm in the face so hard they explode! And she would be his lifelong partner in crime, the lightning goddess Nora! She tried to laugh but it came out as a sob. Pyrrha would get Jaune, even he would see that eventually and _Ms Determination_ wouldn't settle for failure on any front after all! So she'd be left all alone, following Ren like some sad little puppy because who would ever love someone as stupid as her!

"Wow." She said through tears, her voice sounding like some caricature of her usual bellow, "What is wrong with me?" She leant against the busted AC trying desperately to clear her mind, she was Nora. Always happy, always smiles. Life of the party.

She took a deep breath and looked over to the park again, noticing a familiar mop of greying white hair heading to an area of the park she actually didn't know. "Now where are you going to my Dear Ozpin? Could it be an illicit affair with Mrs Goodwitch? Or perhaps you are off to train some secret apprentice in the art of coffee?" She narrated in an air of a nature documentary.

"Why what shall I do, spotting the rare headmaster in the wild? Well of course I study it! Thus we foll-" She prepared to leap to a closer building with Magnhild, but the minute she leapt into the air she was smacked back down in a burst of bright green light - "OW." She protested rubbing her rear end.

Standing on the rooftop ledge with his cane pressed against her forehead was none other than Professor Ozpin. "I am very disappointed in you Nora. I had expected that you might have swung by and spoken to me rather than make an attempt at following me."

"But I didn't-" Nora began-

"Because I stopped you." He interceded, "I have no doubt now that you would have followed me fully to my destination out of a mix of curiousness, boredom and lack of other options." His eyes seemed to examine her closely, "If it was a lack of lien keeping you from the arriving at the diner early, I guarantee they would be happy allowing you to wait for me to pay."

"I just-" She shrank before his piercing gaze unable to even resort to her usual goofy coping measures.

"Just were so worried that you skipped class, avoided the questions of your closest friends and decided to take up stalking as a hobby?" He sighed, almost sounding relieved. "Nora. Please don't follow people? We can talk about whatever is bothering you in-" He flipped open a pocketwatch she could swear wasn't on his person before, "in 40 minutes. I have an appointment to get to."

"Professor?" She asked as he made to step off the ledge, "I'm sorry." She ran an arm up her bicep eyes firmly fixed on the roof she hadleft a small crater in, "I'll wait at the diner." She practically whispered.

He put a finger under her chin and propped it up, "All right. Make sure to smile now, I will need cheering up after all. Nobody likes dealing with all this festival stuff after all. We'll have a talk abotu what's bothering you and I'm sure we can work something out." He flashed her a warm smile and she couldn't help but return it through teary eyes.

He wanted to hear what was wrong. He _actually_ cared about what was bothering her and actually help? Wow, Beacon could be kind of awesome. She grinned, "Well I'll make sure the waitress brings you a PLG!" She flashed a peace sign at him before blasting towards the diner, sailing across the sky again. She felt a burst of aura behind her, probably Ozpin doing whatever he did to get around…

She felt a little lighter; though it could be the fact her stomach was so empty that it's rumbling could scare a Beowulf.


End file.
